Morrowind - First impressions

Very hyped before it's release (see my former post for example), Morrowind has received a lot of rave reviews as well. I bought it a couple of days ago and here's my first impressions.

General
Morrowind is the sequel to the Daggerfall-series, which means nothing to me, as the only RPG:s I've played are Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale. It's a hardcore RPG with infinite possibilities regarding character creation, attributes, spell making etc. It's also extremely openended and non-linear, set in a huge 3D-world which is basically out there for you to discover in total freedom. You play it from a firstpersonperspective (or third) and the world is seamless á la Dungeon Siege, meaning no load screens while walking around (although it freezes for a second when it loads the scenery in the background). Another selling point is the editor, which comes with the game and presumably will lead to a plethora of plug-ins and new scenarios/settings.

Performance
If there ever was a game in need of a 3DSpotlight Tweak Guide, this is it. Morrowind is very demanding and has at the same time a somewhat peculiar engine which is rather hard to tweak. The difference between running it at 1024x768 and 1600x1200, for example, is almost neglible. I have a XP +1900, Geforce 2 GTS 64 MB DDR, 256 MB DDR SDRAM and get appr. 20 fps in landscapes, 30-50 indoors and dipping down to as low as 10 fps in the cities, with everything maxed out at 1600x1200@32. It feels smooth, generally, except in the cities, but as I said - lowering the resolution etc. doesn't make it a whole lot better, so I'd rather stay at 1600x1200, as it looks great. I think 1 GHZ+ and Geforce 2+ is recommended to run it satisfactorily. I've also read a lot about bugs leading to crashes to the desktop etc., but for me it has been completely stable thus far.

Graphics
A lot of TLC has been put into the world of Morrowind, which is breathtakingly beautiful at times. In fact, I'd go so far to say the gameworld really is a work of art, although I've only seen appr. 0.01% of it so far. Everything from flowers, buildings, landscapes, to the day/night-cycle, skies (with 2 moons at night) and weather effects are solid, beautiful and contributes to a very immersive experience. It was very cool just to walk at leasure from the start village, through woods, over some hills, while the sun was setting, and stumble upon a small village I didn't know existed. The models of NPC's and monsters are a mixed bag - some are great, some adequate and a couple of ones looks just corny. Taking away from the immersiveness is the fact that most characters just stand around. The bars in Morrowind-land are really boring, with five guests standing apart, silent, doing nothing 24/7...

Gameplay
As I am a FPS-addict my approach to Morrowind is to get cool weapons/spells and kill lots of monsters. But as you start out very weak and without experience this can be a frustrating experience. Even killing a rat is a difficult task from the start. Also, the slow movement of the character feels frustrating coming from Quake-land. Fighting with weapons are admittedly not as satisfying as in, say, Rune. The slowness means that you really can't dodge and run around very much while fighting. That said, my last experience, clearing out an eerie tomb, was very exciting - fighting cool-looking skeletons, ghosts and some kind of zombies, using a mix of spells and weaponry. On forums the general complaint is that the game is to easy when you are levelled up, so I guess the experience will be quite different when I'm more powerful. Just don't expect the perfect control of a FPS, as the fighting is more like Diablo II (I guess, never having played it) in FPS-disguise.
Can't comment on quests really, as I've just cleared out some dungeons and the like and haven't started the main quest or side quests proper yet.

Conclusion
I have a propensity for being over-enthusiastic in the beginning of games, but then loose interest of them completely and suddenly. That said, Morrowind is certainly the most exciting game I've played this year. I'm bored with FPS:s right now, as they are all the same, and I was longing for a new experience, but set in a 3D-world, playing from a first person perspective. Morrowind seems to be exactly what I was looking for. It will certainly be considered a classic just considering the realization of the huge 3D-world. The openness leads to a gameplay experience which is hard to describe, but very immersive and addictive. I will post a followup when I've learned more about my new homeworld.

Originally posted by svtcobra How do you think it will transition to a console rpg? Its coming out for the Xbox on Friday...

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No idea really. The interface is easy and simple and should switch over quite nicely I guess - and as there is no Quakish need for zenlike mouseabilities movement-control should also function adequately. Don't know how they'll solve the plug-in/custom scenarios thingy, which I think will give the PC-version replayability/longevity.

Check the official forums for more info as my knowledge of consoles equals nil.

Originally posted by Vehementi Do you think it's good enough to make me a believer?

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I wish I could give a straight answer. I'm not into RPG:s either, but I'm completely sucked into Morrowind right now. But it's more of a lifestyle than a game really... Today I walked around a whole day (sunrise to sunset) [appr. 1 hour RL] looking for a NPC I couldn't find and it was perfectly cool. The bottomline is it's a gorgeous world with infinite possibilities, but not an instant gratifying actiongame. I've only played a couple of days and I guess the action part thus far is 1/10:th of the experience and 9/10:ths are used to walk around, buying/selling stuff, talking to people and such stuff.
However, if you're fascinated by virtual worlds (as I am), has a good rig and money to spare I recommend it wholeheartedly as one of the most impressive gameworlds created yet if nothing else.
But led me evade the question a couple of days - perhaps I'll be bored with it by then...

OMG you had better have one hell of a system if you plan on buying this. I think it runs like crap on my system (any I'm sure I've rubbed it in enough times how well everything else plays on it.) I never tried running it at 1600 like you though, because I started in the city and it ran so poorly I never played it again. Since you say that it runs better outside of the city I may give it another try - but not today.

It would probably go OK on my machine, Even though this game sounds like a resource pig. I haven't had many problems with any of the games I have now.

This really sounds like a type of game worth trying. I've never actually played a game like this, besides maybe Deus Ex. I'm definitely going to buy the game, only thing is when & when I'm going to play it...getting home at 6:30pm doesn't help much. (Believe it or not I don't have a job...work...hehe...I'm only 14 )

That's ridiculous of course. It is the cities that are worst. When I said that the difference between 1024x768 and 1600x1200 is "neglible" it's not completely true. If it dips down to 10 fps in 1600, it's somewhere around 13-14 in 1024, which is a 30-40 % increase. Problem is that it doesn't matter as it's still very jerky.

Interiors run smoothly, but considering the graphics there look somewhat akin to the original Unreal, it still runs very bad compared to better optimized engines.

That said, I'm even more impressed by the game now. It's a masterpiece with unprecedented width and depth. It's not perfect, but perfection is impossible on this scale and I really am in awe of it's almost hubrislike ambitions.

Hehe. If you do, you should use the NOCD-patch (note: it's not illegal as you still need the CD, it just bypasses the SafeDisc-check.), as a lot of people have reported better performance and less mini stalls with it. Check this thread on TTLG Forums for links and info.

hmmmm.... I installed it last night at about 6 pm wandered about a bit, killed a couple of rats :blackeye: and just looked at the scenery ..... all of a sudden it was 3am, aaaaarrrrrgh!! This cannot continue, I have (or at least did have) a life.... now I'm falling asleep infront of my PC at work.... Damn all you ppl who recommended this 'game'......

oh yeah, the reason I was posting in the first place. It is a demanding game, but you don't need the same frame rates as on Cs or other FPS's, not sure how many FPS i'm getting but its enough on my 1.4 Athlon with GF2 GTS and 512 SDRAM. I might have a look at that no CD thingly to see if my performance increases... look out for Spliffy's mod sometime soon .